Tag Archives: decision making

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Special Education Climate Survey 2015 – #Engage109

“Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence–only in constant improvement and constant change.”
– Tom Peters

Engage, Inspire, Empower – these words drive our vision and our mission in Deerfield Public Schools, District 109. We are Future Ready, we have made great gains in We are Future Ready!science, technology, engineering, and mathematics K-8. We have impressive, world class facilities and we select excellent staff and administrators! We have tons to be proud of.

We never rest on our laurels and we aim daily to go from good to great or from great to more great. Part of this relentless focus on excellence is shown in the data informed leadership from multiple stakeholders. Recently, in partnership with K12Insight, we administered a special education perceptions survey to parents and staff. All staff were invited to take the survey and all parents of children who leadquotehave an IEP were invited to take the survey as well. Survey data like this guides us, informs us, provides check-ins and check ups and allows us to best serve our students.

The presentation made to the Board of Education on Monday, October 5, 2015, is embedded below. We are so proud to show positive growth:

86% of parents were completely or somewhat satisfied with the quality of the special education and related services their child received this year, which is 9 percent higher than in 2014.

90% of employees said special education students are receiving quality services.

And we are equally proud to show in what areas we have growth opportunities:

55% of employees who have been in co-teaching environments said they do not have adequate support from district leadership for co-teaching. Forty-nine percent of employees who have been in co-teaching environment said they do not have adequate support from school leadership for co-teaching.

31% of employees rated assistive technology services and 25 percent rated professional development in assistive technology as fair or poor.

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

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Culture is Everything – Relationships are Everything – #Engage109

“The test of a leader is taking the vision from me to we.”
– John C. Maxwell, Leadership expert

In the Deerfield Public Schools – District 109, one of the “BIG 5” initiatives under which we operate is Organizational Culture. Our unwavering focus on employee engagement and satisfaction is demonstrated in our annual measure of culture and the individual school action planning around measures of culture at each school. It’s also felt each and every time one walks the halls of our schools or interacts withPeter-Drucker-Culture-Strategy our amazing teachers, support staff, administrators, board members, students, and members of the community. With a strong organizational culture reflecting intentional relationship building, our District is humbled and proud of the three year culture trends (see below from a recent Board presentation from one of our research partners):

All school teams deserve a lot of credit for identifying culture dimensions in need of attention. It is essential to replicate that which works and to remediate that which does not! Our aim is success for all students and staff and community. Our Board of Education continues to lead strategically and govern from “the balcony” allowing staff to do the necessary work on behalf of student learning. As a futureleadership team we have been in office for 26 months and a tremendous amount of positive growth and change is underway. I cannot thank our administrators, teachers, support staff members, students and board members enough for their dedication to intentional and deliberate excellence!

At the most recent school board meeting I shared a highlight of where we have been, where we are and where we are going organizationally. See below for details:

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

ENGAGE, INSPIRE, EMPOWER

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Our purposes in education – Our passion for learning

“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”
– Confucius

A major emphasis in public education is accountability and ROI (Return on Investment). Unlike a business, we do not have “profit margins” and tangible, concrete “returns on our investments” so to speak. We do have test scores, teacher evaluation, climate and culture surveys, satisfaction surveys, observational data, high school performance and rankings and other measures or metrics about how well we are doing and in what areas we need to concentrate.
roi

Often in education our ROI comes back to us years later – notes, cards, calls and visits from former students. Or in the real estate rankings of the local school district – i.e. great schools=high property values and sustained property values. Or/and in the job market, economy, etc. The Return On Investment from the 1957 “Sputnik” situation for example can be tied to America’s landing on the Moon in 1969.
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The Return on Investment for all of the current, modern day 1:1 Transformative Learning Environments may not show for a few years in terms of jobs/careers that do not exist today but will exist in 3, 5, 10, 20 years.

How then do we make decisions in the present knowing that we are impacting the future – a future which is changing almost by the mili-second? Well, we study research, trends, data, case studies, practices in neighboring areas, states, nations. We engage in Twitter, professional development, graduate studies, etc. We also make decisions based upon what we did that worked (for example when I was a teacher, I did x, y, z – and this is how it worked!).

decisionmaking
Among other reasons we also look to the future, and we look at common culture videos like the one I’m sharing below and like others shared in this blog and from other leaders. Using and leveraging technology tools in support of excellent teaching and effective pedagogy works for student and adult learners. Teaching students how to solve problems, work together, communicate, write, read, listen, speak, learn math, science, history, geography, philosophy, arts, music, physical education and health – all of this is amplified and accelerated by with and through technology tools, connectivity, high expectations and student voice and choice in demonstrating learning. These are challenging yet exciting times in education.

And as Horace Mann is quoted as saying in the mid 19th Century: “A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.” We aim to Engage, Inspire, Empower each and every student – each and every day! Please check out the video for some re-affirmations as to why it is different today than it was in the past and it’s incumbent upon us all to prepare our nation’s students for their future – not for our past!

A “Did You Know” Remix video – 2014 – always worth watching and contemplating!

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Internet Safety – Infographic

Today I came across this article from Edudemic in the article (which I encourage you to read) they also posted the following info graphic. As you know, I find info graphics to be very helpful graphic representations of important topics or trends. Please take the time to read the article, check the info graphic – and more important – PLEASE TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT INTERNET SAFETY!

What is posted online is PERMANENT. Everything – even “snap chat” is permanent. Please follow the user guidelines, i.e. if it says one must be 13 years old – PLEASE follow the rules and guidelines. Our young people are not equipped to handle the consequences of poor decisions … sorry to be preachy but this is a current issue and a current problem and we all must work together to ensure our children are safe!

Gaggle-Infographic-Keeping-Students-Safe-Online

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Reflections on a day back in the classroom!

Atlantic Sunrise Desktop Image

On Friday I was lucky since I had the opportunity to get back in the classroom as a substitute teacher for the entire day! As an administrator I visit classrooms every week, in fact this year I have already logged more than 100 individual classroom visits, some lasting a few minutes and others lasting a few hours.  I recently had a chance to participate in middle school First Amendment debates all day, and on Friday I was a substitute teacher all day for students in grades K, 1, and 2! Nothing compares, though, to being the substitute teacher all day in relation to “walking in another’s shoes”. There are many ways administrators can learn about the thoughts, feelings, needs, and experiences of teachers, but literally getting back into the trenches as a teacher is one of many highly effective methods we have in our district. This year each member of the administrative team was in a “raffle” to serve as a substitute for interested employees in the school district.  I was selected by an elementary school teacher who teaches students in grades K-2.

To say that I am proud of the teacher for whom I subbed is an understatement. Her lesson plans were among the best I have ever seen, her organization is phenomenal, her team of educational support personnel is outstanding! I think everyone might have given me extra special treatment due to my official position, but at the end of the day (literally and figuratively) I was the teacher and the experiences were awesome. Like the students, I too learned a lot on Friday!

The students behaved beautifully and eagerly learned and went from task to task. I was told that from time to time these students have challenging or even bad days and sometimes they can give members of the team challenges, but on Friday, they were all about learning, doing, being. The students were kind, attentive, helpful, focused, and quite busy. The teachers plans, about which I describe as well organized, helped guide me in math, language arts, computer work, snack time, motor time, etc.

Each of the students on the teacher’s caseload have individualized plans and individualized schedules. The teacher plans with the other certified specialists (speech language pathologist, social worker, psychologist, etc.) to integrate with the students during their daily work. The students work with one another academically, socially, emotionally, and creatively throughout the many subjects, transitions, etc. I was charged with teaching English, reading, math, social skills, technology usage, listening, writing, etc. I was busy pretty much every minute of the day and the students were quite ready for the routine and quite comfortable with the predictive nature of their days.

So often I have to make decisions that affect many people. The best of those decisions are made when I can get collaborative input from those most impacted by the decisions. Having the opportunity to substitute teach yesterday gave me a real life view point from teachers, teacher assistants, social worker, psychologist, speech language pathologist, assistant principal, and others! Being present all day, being in the trenches so to speak, truly helps me “walk a mile in their shoes”. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as a substitute teacher. I am so grateful to the teacher and the educational team members for their amazing support and work on a daily basis on behalf of the kids; and I am so grateful to the parents of the students for their input, communication, support, and partnership in support of the education of their children!

It truly takes a village to raise a child and I am so happy to be part of this village!